#1 Red signal to those who don’t care about customers

There are marketing companies who don’t care about your customers and only focus on traffic.

Needless to say, these are a direct red flag for me. Since marketing is all about people if you don’t even care about people, how can you carry out a successful marketing campaign?

Whether your goal is to advertise online or engage your customers through social media, there are always your customers (or potential customers) involved.

No matter what kind of campaign are you running- inbound or outbound, there are always people involved. Most of the times, these are your target market.

Online Marketing is more than just Traffic and Reach.

The best marketing agencies always start with buyer persona. They collect as much information about your ideal customer as possible.

Before even creating the first social media posts, they need to assess the customers, previous success or failure results, and many other factors.

#2 Do they invest in SEO?

There are many agencies which just focus on social media and are providing quality service to their clients.

I completely appreciate that.

Nevertheless, my view is that every agency should at least know about SEO and should not completely ignore them. Even then, most of the agencies provide service as if it is 2008 or 2013.

This is 2018 and digital marketing industry changes at the flash of the light. It is agency’s job to update with the necessary changes and be equipped with the necessary resources.

Even social media marketing agencies should know about SEO and be able to deal with simple SEO tasks.

SEO is an important and integral part of Digital Marketing. If your agency is missing out this vital part, then your business is losing something as well.

#3 Ask them how will they bring value to your business?

The best agencies never hide anything from their clients, unless it is a confidential information about their company.

Always be asking – “How do you bring value to my business?”

Of course.

The answer always varies.

But the core reason to ask the question is to make sure that the agency does not hide their work approach. Since it is about your business and paying for it, you have that absolute right to know about the service that they provide.

You are providing them with your brand. You need to know how do they bring value to your business. Sometimes, it is in the form of traffic or sometimes in the form of leads.

But the clarity is what’s needed.

You have to be cautious with the agencies which try to hide the information.

#4 Too cheap means there’s something to doubt

Quality people know their worth.

When there is a talent involved, it demands a certain cost. And, those agencies which provide a lot of efforts into their work need some rewards.

If the agency that you choose is willing to work for a minimal price that you think, it’s time to think a second thought about the quality service.

Because every service comes at a cost. And, if your agency is trying to do work for a price that is just too low, then I really doubt the quality of the work.

I even hear people and companies say something like this – “Free SEO when you buy website development from us”.

C’mon SEO is a different field. Why are you trying to sell web design with SEO tag on it? It just ruins the SEO market. That’s what is happening today in Nepal.

#5 Online Marketing is more than Website and IT

As I mentioned earlier, many people here in Nepal tend to relate online marketing to websites and IT-related thing. In fact, there are some technical things involved. However, internet marketing is not IT.

There are many web development companies which provide online marketing services like social media marketing, SEO, Youtube advertising and so on.

It’s time for a mindset change.

Let me tell you a little story – Once upon a time in a cafe, one of my potential clients asked me about our services.

I told him that we are full-fledged agencies and provide almost every necessary services. Immediately, he asked me whether we build websites or not.

This is the truth. We have not been able to go beyond websites and Facebook. It’s time to rethink about online marketing. And, invest our time and energy in SEO, content marketing, online display advertising and so on.

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